


The Telvanni Apprentice

by TaergaLive



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 21:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10602258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaergaLive/pseuds/TaergaLive
Summary: Talvas learns about patience the hard wayBased off of Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice





	

When an all-powerful Telvanni wizard came to his village recruiting an apprentice, Talvas was baffled to hear that no one was jumping at the chance to be able to learn from a Master. And not just any master, but a Telvanni master. Not some school teacher with morals and wisdom to teach but a wizard who knows true power and was apparently willing to share it.

Three weeks into his apprenticeship, Talvas understood why.

Three weeks in, and all he had learned so far was how to collect rocks. Day after day, Master Neloth had him collect rocks while the master worked on his various projects. And it wasn’t easy work either. In order to get the special rocks his teacher wanted, Talvas had to use a pickax to uproot them. Talvas was sick of it, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he had completely relocated, he would have quit.

One night, as he carried a basket of strange rocks his teacher hoarded, Talvas watched as Neloth merely wrote in a book. It was all he had been doing that day. Placing the basket on the ground and stretching his back, Talvas realized the book must be the old man’s grimoire. All of his secretes, the spells he had created, were in that book! He stiffened; he needed to get his hands on that book. But how?

Luck was on his side that night, for Neloth suddenly snapped the book shut and placed it on a table as he mumbled some incoherent raving about spriggans, walking towards the tower’s exit. He made sure, however, to remind Talvas of his task and how he expected the boy to have collected at least a hundred stones by nightfall. As the door shut, Talvas hissed a curse at the old man, annoyed at the inane task he had been assigned.

One heartbeat, then another. Talvas found himself in front of the book, inching his hand toward the cover. Just a peek, he promised. Just a peek and he’d return to his work.  
In one swift motion, he threw the book open to a random page. Notes and scribbles adorned the margins, the ravings of a madman, or perhaps a genius? He squinted trying to decipher his master’s horrid handwriting. He flipped the page, scowling at the annoying conjectures and theories he found. Who cared about theories? He wanted power!  
At long last, he came across a spell, one he had never heard of before. It was a sort of combination of alteration and conjuration that made no coherent sense but somehow fit together seamlessly. The amount of magicka concentration it required was relatively low for such a complex task, and it actually seemed easy enough for Talvas to try. What drew him to it the most, however, was what it did: animating the inanimate.

What would he use as his victim? Or, perhaps the better term was subject or even creation, for wasn’t he technically creating life? A small laugh escaped his lips. He could become a god! His ambition blinded him, for if this spell was as powerful as he believed, why hadn’t his master made use of it before? Ah, but that is the folly of the eager student.  
Hastily, Talvas snatched a broom and, concentrating, he casted the spell. Nothing. Determined, he tried again. The broom shook, but nothing more. Panting slightly, surprised at how drained he felt, Talvas tried one last time. The broom flew back several feet; Talvas himself stumbled from the blowback.

The broom lay on its side for several seconds before twitching. Talvas watched in amazement as it jumped up. Not used to the need for standing alone, the broom fell back down. It tried again, learning quickly how to balance itself. Talvas laughed, unable to believe his eyes. It was moving. He created life!  
It watched Talvas, or at least Talvas assumed it to do so (for could the creature even see?) as he paced back and forth, wondering what he could do next. His eyes flickered to his abandoned basket, and an idea began to take shape.

He commanded the broom to follow him as he grabbed his pickax, a bag, and a hammer and nail. Talvas led the broom to the digging site where he had been collecting the rocks. He handed the bag to the broom who did nothing with it. Talvas was prepared for that, for how would a broom carry a bag? Taking the hammer and nail, he nailed the back into the side of the broom, not even taking the time to conjecture whether his new creation could feel pain or not. If the broom did feel anything, however, it made no inclination.  
Taking his pickax up, Talvas began to harvest the rocks, placing them in the bag the broom was “carrying.” When the bag was full, he commanded that the broom carry them back up the tower and return. Talvas would still have to do a lot of the hard work, but at least he wouldn’t have to run back and forth between the digging site and the tower.  
He continued to labor, starting a new pile of rocks to place in the bag. When the broom returned, Talvas jumped back. It now had arms! Talvas couldn’t believe it. It didn’t make any sense. Then again, Talvas thought, he had just made a broom sentient, so why should this be so surprising? Perhaps it was even part of the spell, for he didn’t study the page for very long.

A new idea began to form in Talvas’ mind as he looked at his pickax. He held the ax in front of the broom. Again, the broom did nothing. Talvas commanded the broom to take the pickax; the broom complied. In his best imitation of the Master Neloth’s voice, he commanded the broom to gather the rocks and bring them into the tower. The broom complied.

With a smug smile, Talvas returned to the tower, happy to finally be rid of that horrid task. The broom would do all the work for him, and he could relax. Master Neloth might even be so impressed with how many rocks he collected that the old man might finally teach him something! Sitting in a chair, propping his feet up, Talvas began to imagine what it would be like for when he was as powerful, or even more powerful, than Master Neloth.

Lost in his reverie, Talvas didn’t notice just how good at its task the broom was. Pile after pile of rock was beginning to appear in the small tower. Soon, they lined the floor. A pile rolled under Talvas’ chair, causing him to fall over. He quickly assessed the situation. He realized he never told the broom when to stop! Using his most compelling voice, he demanded the broom to cease. It stopped for merely a second before heading back out the tower. Frantically, Talvas ran after it, tripping and sliding over the various rocks in his path.

Upon reaching the broom, he grabbed it, trying to pick it up and stop it from collecting more rocks. But the broom proved to be much stronger than Talvas anticipated, and it evaded Talvas’ grasp. Desperate, Talvas eyed the pickax over by the digging site. The broom must have been leaving it there so it could carry more rocks each time. He flung himself at the ax and drove the dulling blade into the broom’s center. The broom grabbed at the ax, trying to pull the ax out. Mustering the little he knew about magic, Talvas set the broom on fire. He watched as it flailed frantically back and forth, slowly burning away until it was nothing more than ash.

Panting, Talvas wiped his brow, not looking forward to the mess he was going to have to clean up in the tower. But, on the bright side, at least he had enough rocks to please Master Neloth.

When Talvas was safely back in the tower, cleaning up the mess the broom had caused, the wind outside began to dance. And, with it, the ashes of the now dead broom. But these ashes didn’t merely blow away. They began to twist and twirl and pile upon one another until they formed demented blobs, each one as sentient as the other. Each one as strong as the other. One by one, they each began to pick up piles of already cut rocks and headed back to the tower.

When Talvas heard the door open, he jumped up, trying to think of an explanation to tell his Master. But no one came up. Confused, he looked over the railing. His heart skipped a beat as he saw the ash spawns piling rocks at the base of the tower! He couldn’t begin to understand how this was happening, but he didn’t need to. He just needed to figure out how to get them to stop before they slowly barricaded him in the tower. At a time like this, Talvas cursed the tower for not having and windows. The ash spawns worked quickly, piling the rocks halfway up the tower. And since they were just ash, they were able to slip by the rocks and push more rocks through and pile more rocks everywhere. Talvas ran to the Master’s grimoire, hoping to find something to reverse the spell. But his frantic searching was interrupted by ash spawn reaching the top of the tower, starting to place the rocks throughout the main room’s floor. Just as he began to say his prayers to Azura, the ash spawns suddenly fell to the ground. All was quiet before the rocks began to flow out of the tower, looking more like a river current than a pile of rocks. Talvas was confused yet relieved.

As it turns out, Master Neloth had returned home to find a rock pile trailing from one end of Tel Mithryn to his very tower. Recognizing the spell which had to have been used to make the ash sentient, he used his magicka to cut the ash off from the magicka stream all together. Using a very powerful telekinetic spell, he drained his house of all the stones, letting them gather back at the digging site.

Upon completing this task, he floated up to the top of his tower, a disheveled and nervous apprentice waiting for him. Talvas smiled at his master as if to say he was sorry for the trouble he cause, but Neloth continued to glare at him. Talvas’ smile faltered as Neloth pointed to the basket. Talvas picked it up as Neloth silently commanded that he return to his task, alone. Complying, Talvas began to walk past his master, who, he couldn’t help but notice, started to smirk. Curious, Talvas waited for his master to say something. Instead, Neloth lifted his foot and booted the boy down the tower


End file.
